Sight for sore eyes
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5 Things I Wish People Understood About Being Legally Blind
Having spent my life since birth with a vision impairment, there's always:
"But you wear glasses."
Glasses don't fix everything. So, even if you have/wear them, it doesn't mean your prolem is solved. In my case, it's not even close to solved.
"You should get laser surgery."
Laser surgery doesn't fix everything. So, it would be great if people would stop suggesting it to me as an option. It's not a cure-all. It's not magic. And I'm not a candiate.
"You should get stronger glasses."
There's such a thing as too much. I wish I had the science to explain it, but just as bigger shoes don't help you walk better, stronger glasses don't always help you see better. If you've found the formula that works for your particular issue, then that's what's going to work, like a key in a lock. Stronger can cause eyestrain and headaches.
"Why didn't you learn Braille?"
Why didn't you learn Swahili? Because you didn't need to? Welll, there you go. I've got enough vision to read most things just fine. Many of us do. I do remember an incident on the bus one time, when I had my phone very close to my face (which I always need when reading anything, in fact) and a (now) ex-boyfriend said, "People are staring at you." "Yeah, so?" He said it as if I were somehow supposed to either be bothered by people staring, or suddenly change life-long behaviour just so that I didn't embarass him by my little need to hold something close to my face. I'm not going to stop reading in public just so other people won't be bothered by how close I'm holding something to my face. Ya'll don't need to stare. I'm just reading, not stripping naked and doing a tango.
Another myth is that people with low vision are less sensitive to colour. Truth be told, I'm more sensitive to it, and notice subtle shade differences better/more readily than some folks with 20/20 vision.